Trip to Lima

For the thousands 🙂 that read our blog I do apologize for not posting anything lately.  Becca and I had to take a trip to Lima in order to get our carnets in order.  A carnet is kind of like our green card in Peru. It is our visa that shows that we reside in Peru but are not residents of Peru.  Since we are coming up on 5 years in Peru we had to get a whole new card because our old one is full of stickers from paying the annual taxes and fees.  Becca had no problem getting hers; it probably took just a little over an hour. Getting my new carnet was and is a little more complicated.  I returned to the U.S. last January for 2 weeks and when I reentered Peru they stamped my passport as a WORKER instead of as a Religious Non-Catholic.  I found out I couldn’t get my new carnet until that was fixed.  We talked to the people in charge of fixing it and after waiting 4 hours they finally fixed it, which left me about an hour to get my carnet before they closed.  Everything seemed good until I was about to get my new picture taken and they said there was a problem.  Immigrations somehow had me leaving Peru on Nov. 27th, 2006 and never reentering Peru.  Which seems illogical since I was standing right in front of them.  I told them that I had not left the country but they said I couldn’t get my new carnet until this problem was resolved.  It just so happens that my brother left the country on that very day!  Coincidentally, he has the same inicials and birth date as me.  So, I do not have my new carnet but the good news is that I don’t have to return to Lima to get.